Mobitel in new network expansion project
Sri Lanka Telecom Mobitel, the national mobile telecom service
provider, announced that it has signed BOI agreement to trial and deploy
a LTE (Long Term Evolution) network for the first time in Sri Lanka.
This will be part of the company's network expansion project and will
enable Mobitel to import or purchase locally project-related items free
of customs duty.
Mobitel has committed an investment of approximately US$ 60 m in its
latest network expansion, adding 1000 LTE capable radio base stations to
the existing network infrastructure. With this, the company's investment
committed to-date in its LTE/3.5G/2.5G networks and service offerings
amount to over US$ 400 m.
"Technology change is a key determinant of a country's economic
growth and therefore the introduction of LTE Network is expected to
drive growth in the telecommunication sector as well as improve
competitiveness and growth in several other economic sectors heavily
depended on infocom" said. Chairman BOI of Sri Lanka Jayampathi
Bandaranayake.
"We are happy to support Sri Lanka Telecom Mobitel in its endeavour
to provide the latest ICT technologies which is sure to catalyze
national development."
LTE is the latest standard in the mobile network technology evolution
after GSM/EDGE and 3.5G/HSPA network technologies, and Mobitel is
gearing towards demonstrating broadband speeds nearing 100Mbps in
downlink and 50Mbps in uplink, using this LTE technology when the
spectrum is available.
Director General of Telecommunications Anusha Palpita said "TRCSL is
committed to assist all the telecommunication operators in Sri Lanka to
develop world class telecommunication network facilities in the country.
The spectrum allocation for the commercial operation of LTE will soon
be finalized where the operators will be able to launch nationwide
enhanced ICT infrastructure to benefit all businesses and consumers in
Sri Lanka through this latest evolution in mobile broadband technology."
Chairman Sri Lanka Telecom Mobitel Nimal Welgama said, "Harnessing
the power of ICT to its fullest potential will be the key in realising
hyper exponential pace of growth which is needed to build our nation and
to do so rapidly.
This requires next generation ICT available and affordable to the
citizens of our country which will help eventually realize the
President's vision of elevating the e-literacy rate in Sri Lanka.
In this regard, this investment on the latest LTE infrastructure will
be a significant step towards driving unparalleled growth to propel our
country forward."
ZTE Corporation of China was selected by Mobitel as its technology
partner to deploy this State-of-the-art LTE ready
Next-Generation-Network.
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